Ed von Renouard's Apollo Super-8 Film

Side-by-side comparison of (left) the Goldstone image the worldwide
television
audience saw of Neil at the bottom of the ladder and (right) the image
captured off the
TV monitors (before scan conversion) at Honeysuckle Creek with a
handheld Super-8 camera.

Ed von Renouard was the Senior Video Tech at Honeysuckle Creek Tracking
Station. He manned the scan converter console for the Apollo 11 EVA and
was the first to see the lunar television as it emerged from the
receiving equipment, and before it went to Houston via Sydney, and then
to the world.

Ed worked at Honeysuckle until just before the Apollo-Soyuz Test
Project. Previously he had worked in broadcast television with the
Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Ed von Renouard is seated at the
initial installation
of the RCA scan converter before the slow scan rack was installed.
This probably would have been in 1967 or 68.
(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Ed von Renouard at the video console during the Apollo 12 mission.
The slow scan rack is on the left.
(Click on the image for a larger version)

In mid 2005 I was speaking with Ed, who now lives in the UK. We spoke
about the Apollo 11 television broadcast when he remembered that he had
some Super 8 movie film he shot during the EVA. He had taken his
camera to Honeysuckle and had recorded scenes of other technicians
and engineers at the station, as well as of the TV monitors showing
live pictures from the Moon. He hadn't seen his film in a long time,
and wasn't sure he still had it. Thankfully, he was able to find it.

In order to send me a copy, Ed projected his film onto a screen and
used a video camera on a tripod to record the picture onto video tape.

When his tape arrived, I realised that Ed had some unique footage.
His film clearly shows Armstrong coming down the ladder - something
that was only vaguely visible to the international TV audience. As
well, he filmed the PLSS
backpacks
being
dumped
down the ladder more than two hours after
the EVA ended. (This may be the only existing recording of that event.)

Although Ed only made the film as a personal souvenir, it was clear
that it was very important to preserve it as a unique record of that
historic day.

Several friends in the Apollo community helped with the finances to
have the film professionally transferred to digital media, and ALSJ
contributing editor David Woods (who is a BBC Post-Production Editor in
Scotland) arranged for an Archive Telecine Specialist (Tim
Emblem-English) at the BBC in London, to do the work. Ed hand delivered
the film - and also some more film including footage he took during the
Apollo 16 and 17 EVAs - and the transfer was made.

The digital files were then sent to David Woods and he was able to
reduce the strobing on the Apollo 11 TV footage (caused by the
difference in frame rate between the 18 frames per second Super 8 movie
camera and the TV monitor). David passed along the files to me in
Australia and I have put them into their correct sequence and added the
appropriate mission audio for context.